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Home Secretary warns children may suffer if authorities overwhelmed with cases
Posted 10 years ago
UK Home Secretary, Theresa May MP, has warned that changing the law to force professionals such as teachers to report suspicions of abuse could lead to the authorities being swamped with false allegations and fewer children being protected as a result.
The parallels with Scotland’s named person scheme are obvious where there is a very real danger of genuine cases of neglect being overlooked as named persons assume responsibility for thousands of children.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, Theresa May said:
“The question that has been raised in other countries is that what happens in other countries with mandatory reporting is that the number of reports goes up significantly but many of those reports are actually not justified and what you do is you diminish the ability to deal with the serious reports and to actually protect children. So it is a very complex issue.
“It is a serious question that needs to be looked at but I think we need to look at it very carefully and look at the evidence from countries like Australia and the United States where the evidence to its effectiveness in improving the ability to deal with these issues is mixed.”
Read in the article in full here: Mandatory reporting of child abuse could put more children at risk, warns Theresa May